wildspiritwolf:

These are photos of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation: An Oglala Sioux Native American reservation located in the U.S. state of South Dakota.  Here men, women and children are forced to live in appalling poverty stricken conditions because of the neglect and ignorance of the Government whose members live in luxury while these people struggle in cramped conditions with little food and no running water.  Many are unaware of this and others just choose to turn a blind eye but we need to get the truth out there and encourage more and more people worldwide to speak out against this as it’s completely disgusting and unacceptable for the U.S in today’s modern society.  Reblog and help increase awareness and if you would like to help further you can find out more or make a donation here, every little bit counts.  http://friendsofpineridgereservation.org/

The poorest county in the nation, the most beautiful land in this country. Such a dichotomy is unfair to the traditions of the indigenous people from the Plains. To everyone from South Dakota who has ever argued their conditions - “Why don’t they just leave?” - I have a response. Why should they leave? Through the continued suffering of the degradation of their lands, wrought on by a government who believes that they are the true founders and inhabitants of this country, to the people like yourself who marginalize them like so, only associating a group of peoples to the reservations, and not to the land you also walk on. They are not the injustice. The injustice is the ignorance and the blatant political avoidance about lands like these.

Deconstruct yourself. There is the theme of geography that is most prevalent throughout the tribal lands of this continent. The philosophy of geography states that geography is ceremonial, because it requires time and space, which thus, symbiotically, requires ceremony. Identity is geography is sacred. Displacement is not a solution. Your sense of place is indicative of who you are, your value systems. Geography without a connection cannot be considered geography, because where you emerged from results in what you become. A disconnect is detrimental to life’s cyclical motions. Why? Because geography is healing. Geography gives you your conceptions of the world. Geography is a relationship. 

There is an unequivocal right to this land. Once this is properly acknowledged and rightly accepted, the beauty can only be enhanced. 

(via scartalfheim)